Not having a pop at De Zerbi, but TBH I'm slightly disappointed with him for not showering Biss more love and play him more while he tried all means hoping Muani can come good. Biss on top form is certainly more useful than the Muani cunt.
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Management Roberto De Zerbi
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The collection of central midfielders we have has the least flair we've had since probably the early 2000s. There's not enough creativity in midfield without Maddison and his absence has really exposed it. Xavi can only do so much on his own in his first season and even he is primarily a final third player. What we have is a bunch of guys who either can tackle or can run. But they're not putting their foot on the ball and controlling games or doing something off the cuff in the middle of the park.
Don’t really know what there is left to discuss here, the manager clearly isn’t the issue. How many managers do we need to sack before people realise that?
“He should’ve played that formation”, “he should’ve subbed on X, Y and Z”, “he should’ve, could’ve, would’ve” -bollocks to all of that. We go through the exact same cycle every single time, and sentiment on this board moves in absolute extremes. One minute the manager is a godsend, the next people are demanding he gets sacked immediately. Meanwhile the same weak mentality and brain-dead decision making keep repeating regardless of who’s in charge.
There’s something rotten about this squad and, as
Phomesy
and others have pointed out, it goes deeper than just the players. It’s throughout the club, the structure, the mentality, the management, everything.
“He should’ve played that formation”, “he should’ve subbed on X, Y and Z”, “he should’ve, could’ve, would’ve” -bollocks to all of that. We go through the exact same cycle every single time, and sentiment on this board moves in absolute extremes. One minute the manager is a godsend, the next people are demanding he gets sacked immediately. Meanwhile the same weak mentality and brain-dead decision making keep repeating regardless of who’s in charge.
There’s something rotten about this squad and, as
Phomesy
and others have pointed out, it goes deeper than just the players. It’s throughout the club, the structure, the mentality, the management, everything.There is literally no alternative to Muani, he's trying to unfuck his head, it's not working.
As Shady has already tried to patiently explain to you we aren't going to change a formation/system that is clearly working for the final game of the year. That is just fucking nuts.
We finally look solid at the back and create chances going forward. You don't mess with that ffs.
I'm totally here for it.
I don't care which one of these pricks saves us we just need saving.
They'll still be pricks after the game but at the very least I'll give them a 24 hour amnesty before calling for them to be sold asap.
I'm guessing he's seen the same unreliability in Biss as our previous managers have because on paper he's the perfect fit for De Zerbi.
Such a shame - Biss had all the tools to be one of the better midfielders in europe
I'm not suggesting we change anything at the back, so there you go with another strawman. I'm on about the final third, these useless so called wingers, Tel has one assist in the league this season, and Muani is diabolical to such a degree he's making Tel look good.
So it's just a matter of dropping those two, putting two extra midfielders on and instruct them to get wide at times because even a player standing there scratching his arse is going to provide width and pull the defence. Even if that player fucks up and keeps making really shit crosses, it's just going to be the same, the main difference is we'll have two extra people who can tackle and win the ball on the pitch.
So it's not really a major change apart from the actions of two useless wide players will have changed and be replaced with players drifting wide who will also be shit but at least they can be strong on the ball, and also win possession.
You're talking as though I'm asking De Zerbi to utterly change everything, when it's only really a tweak, and the sort of thing he may well do if we're already winning or drawing the game with limited time remaining.
This isn't how it works.
Those players need to stay wide, not get wide at times or drift wide, they need to hug the touchline.
Our full backs are coming in field and the wingers needs to keep the width hence why you cant just throw anyone in there like that, if you put Gray, Sarr, Bergvall in those positions they are naturally inclined to come in field and condense the space.
Tel is fine for now because you're not gonna do a lot better than him right now and at least he's a threat, Muani is the only change you can make to actually make a difference and not kill the structure of the team at the same time.
Different position. Cannot compare.
And that collection of midfielders are all decent enough players in the responsible ball-winning mold, but you combine them all being water carrier types with the absolute cart horses we have up front and the team just becomes crap.
They aren't individually bad, but their commonality and application in the actual lineup makes them non-functional.
Whose fault is that?
We substituted him last night. There literally is an alternative, or we couldn’t have done that.
Yeah Madders who can't play more than 25 minutes...
50/1 with Bet365
Its going to be Tel if its absolutely anyone. He's writing his own weird chapter in Spurs folk law.
And that’s it? Still literally an alternative. But he’s not the only one.
Don’t really know what there is left to discuss here, the manager clearly isn’t the issue. How many managers do we need to sack before people realise that?
“He should’ve played that formation”, “he should’ve subbed on X, Y and Z”, “he should’ve, could’ve, would’ve” -bollocks to all of that. We go through the exact same cycle every single time, and sentiment on this board moves in absolute extremes. One minute the manager is a godsend, the next people are demanding he gets sacked immediately. Meanwhile the same weak mentality and brain-dead decision making keep repeating regardless of who’s in charge.
There’s something rotten about this squad and, as
Good post.
Last game - hopefully Maddison has just a little bit more in him.
On the broader point about the after the event brigade - agree. It's too convenient, and always ignores that we have too many players who are better when they aren't playing than when they are.
There does appear to be an issue with this club but I also think we have hasda succession of managers who have palpably failed to oversee comsistency of performance from our players. That I just don't understand.
We simply seem unable to have 5 or 6 plsyers who are regularly at 7/10 or higher. I think that is a massive contributory factor to where we are at present.
I never feel comfortable watching us. Never at ease,and some/much of that must come from the manager, not thay I would place too much on De Zerbi at present, but he must make that defined and discernible difference.
Something on and off the pitch must change. It simply has to
Well I've just checked the Premier League website and both Tel and Muani have one assist each this season, if that translates into the attacking wide positions working well, then I'd hate to see it if they weren't.
Maybe it's too late in the season now but at some point we're either going to improve the wing situation with better players. or ditch the system and find a system that works for what we have available. I'm not sure that we even have a left winger unless we count Mikey Moore, and I'm not even sure he's the touchline hugging type of player that you say we need for this system.
This is one of the problems with inverted fullbacks, if your forward wingers are shit there's no much that can be done, as you say, fullbacks coming in field means that all the width has to be applied by a low impact pair of 'wingers' whereas if the fullbacks stayed wide, we coul;d fuck those wingers off and play with more players in midfield some of which can overlap with the fullbacks.
I really do hope that De Zerbi isn't going to be like Postecoglou in that he won't change the system even if the players we need to implement it are out injured.
Strawman?
Obviously but we're talking about just one more game.
Porro coming in field is fine and it's working, what we lack for deep passing he is providing it, you don't want Porro stuck on the wing in this team when he is arguably the best progressive passer in the side, all well and good saying that you want the full backs to stay wide but you're not going to progress the ball very well...i.e Frank ball.
Pointless changing the system now, it's what it is - this system has allowed us to be even within a chance of surviving and we are winning the xg battle more often than not, it means the issue is down to personnel, not the system.